Colts experience post-Peyton ticket slump

During Peyton Manning’s tenure with the team, the only problem with tickets to the game was getting some. With Peyton gone, getting in to Lucas Oil Stadium won’t be a problem.

Getting the games on local TV could be.

Don Muret of SportsBusiness Journal explains that the Colts have hired a local firm to help sell tickets after a seven-percent drop in season-ticket renewals. Currently, the team has 3,000 season tickets to sell, prompting the organization for the first time in a decade to hire interns, who will target customers that previously bought single-game tickets. The interns also make a second pass through a waiting list that apparently is made up of more than a few folks who are willing to wait even longer.

The situation demonstrates the fickle nature of football fans. At a time when the NFL hopes to persuade more and more fans to choose to watch games in person than on TV, the primary magnet continues to be a consistently winning team.

And it makes sense. Given what it now costs to attend games, it’s far easier to justify the expense if the buyer believes the return on the investment will be the satisfaction that comes from watching a victory for the home team.

With the Colts struggling through a 2-14 campaign in 2011 and expected to limp for a year or two as Andrew Luck gets up to speed, folks in Indy will be inclined to stay home until they believe they’ll be paying hard-earned money not to witness yet another loss.

so luck needs to learn a yr or two and thats all good,but cam newton comes in with no offseason and sets every rookie qb record and some all time records, but he sucks?sure seems like alot of black qb haters

Colts fans have been very fortunate to have such a long run of success. There is no guarantee that says they’ll ever get back there again. Good owner/management/QB all at the same time is what’s needed. At this juncture… it’s a wait and see situation for them.

No surprise. They were lousy fanbase for years. They jumped on the bandwagon for a short time and now they’re off it. When you have to pipe recorded noise into a dome, it tells you how apathetic they are.

so luck needs to learn a yr or two and thats all good,but cam newton comes in with no offseason and sets every rookie qb record and some all time records, but he sucks?sure seems like alot of black qb haters
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Luck is coming to a team that’s being completely rebuilt player wise and system wise on both sides of the ball. A lot of vets were jettisoned. Newton was coming to a team that while different on offense and at HC had the same GM and DC, and a lot more talent. Time will tell who is the better QB as they are both talented. But I think your reasoning is unfair.

@regulator01. Race card? Really? This only makes you seem desperate and ignorant. People like you do more to keep racism alive by saying things like this. You are dumb enough to turn a Colts ticket sales topic into race. I read that and laughed. Nice try though. I agree Cam is a helluva ball player. We all bleed red bro. Have a happy and safe memorial day. I’m gonna spend mine remembering my fellow brothers I fought beside and lost.

Season tickets would be much more attractive if the prices rose and fell depending on how well the team did. And your season ticket price didnt change (go up) anytime the teams wants to charge more. And those people who buy season tickets after a 2-14 year were rewarded with lower prices.

I sure am happy the state of Minnesota spent half a billion dollars to fund Zygi. And as a bonus, if it doesn’t sell out, the people who are required to pay, through taxes, can’t watch on tv. Great deal.

Fair weather fans. Period. Ravens sold out with Stoney Case throwing the ball. Sure they have a stout defense that always kept them competitive but that says more to Polian’s draft skills and the Colts’ plan for the future.

Florio, I keep hoping against hope that you can’t get ANY dumber, and you keep disappointing me.

‘The fickle nature of football fans”

The product the colts will be putting on the field this year will be somewhat turdlike, to coin a phrase, ticket prices keep going up, the colts will be playing in a stadium that cost $1,000,000,000 and which was built at public expense after irsay, following a family tradition, threatened to leave town and move – this time to Los Angeles.
We are STILL in a recession, I have no idea what it costs to park there but I’m sure it is impressive, irsay paid their recently departed QB $28,000,000 to play w/o the guy taking a physical, etc. – the list is long of the reasons that fans have become ‘fickle’.

Well, well well. What is happening to the “great Colts fans” we’ve heard about for the past decade from the blogs and media talking heads. The Colts are just going back to their original 30K attendance like in the 90’s. Funny.

When you combine the cost of the tickets, parking, and anything you purchase at the game, you are looking at a minimum of $200 (assuming two people that aren’t drinkers). That’s $2,000 for season tickets – again an extremely low figure. For that kind of money, I can buy a very nice 46″ HD TV and pay for a nice cable package for a year. That doesn’t even factor in dealing with the obnoxious drunks at the game and the time it takes to get into and out of the stadium. This is going to become a bigger factor for the NFL to deal with as ticket prices continue to rise.

@regulator01, you’re a retard. @ravensd, oh really? Bandwagon Steelers fans huh? Are you referring to the 10 yr long waiting list for season tickets? Or the fact that it is impossible to see a game without using a scalper?

Where are all the LA Colts comments? They have on of the smallest stadiums in the NFL have been to the playoffs for years, division crowns, championship games and been to super bowls with a win in one. This has got to be the worst fan base in the NFL. One year of a bad team then draft the best QB prospect in a long time and they have issues selling tickets. Sad. The worst fair weather fans.

dollarbill, i agree this probably wasnt the proper thread, my bad on that,would just be nice to see some concise points if someone doest like a player, rather than just spewing mindless hate.thanks for your comment too gary, i feel much better having heard your two words of wisdom

No, the worst fanbase is in Miami. There is way too many nasty articles being published concerning Manning and Indy. Most are not even close to the truth! That article was about the nastiest I have ever read. My comment to the author is, “shame on you” and go to Denver and root for him there.

I love going to games, there’s really nothing like it. But for the price it would cost to bring a family of four to one “good” game with decent seats (when factoring in gas, parking, food, beer, etc), I could probably instead by a 50″ flatscreen, NFL Sunday Ticket, all you can eat wings and dip, and a 30 rack of beer on top. Just sayin’

The Colts misplayed the Manning situation badly. Somehow they forgot that their time in Indy has been relatively short, and, up until Manning, it was almost entirely bleak. This isn’t a a franchise that, sans Manning, inspired anything close to passion. The only loyalty they could have possibly sowed was, by and large, on the back of the man that they smugly discarded through a ‘football decision’. Its tantamount to Christianity swapping out Jesus for a newer, younger, hipper prophet.

Hyperbole? Sure. But if any player in the last half decade earned a little loyalty, it was Peyton Manning. A player for the ages on the field, an even better human being off. That their disloyalty is being reciprocated at the gate seems perfectly fitting.

IMO Colts made a big mistake letting Manning go..This is just one of the reasons right here. Then you have your football reasons also. Could have traded out of the #1 pick & loaded up with picks. Could have gotten a qb in next yrs draft or even the following yr. Manning has 4 yrs left to play…IMO the colts panicked. Luck can’t hold Mannings jock strap & never will.

All you folks that toot your horns about how much of a fan you are and trash what you might consider a bandwagon fan consider this:
More than (prob by a lot) 75% of NFL fanatics are casual fans, 20% are season ticket holders and the rest are the horn tooters. The first 95% are the one that matter the most to the NFL.

I dont know about other owners but Daniel Snyder makes you purchase “tailgate” passes to every game if you sit in the lower bowl which cost 50.00 per ticket. Thats a thousand bucks a year added on to your season ticket prices. That alone is the reason i abandoned my season tickets after having them for 13 years. When the price of tickets goes from 2800.00 to 3800.00 for two tickets to 10 games (8 regular season and two preseason games). If irsay is charging for stuff like that there is no way in the world i would pay for season tickets either with a terrible product.

I used to have season tickets to an NFL team but I got a little older, (62 at the time) ticket prices and food prices went up and I bought a huge HD tv. Now I just sit on my sofa on those cold ass days and watch two or three games on Sunday. Lowering the prices at lot will help.

How many of you 51 poster have season tickets to your team? My guess is none of you possers, all you can to is to slam everybody else’s team and won’t even support your own team, ie OH I will stay home and watch MY team on tv,so when they do suck you can turn the channel. I will say I have had colts tickets since the day they rolled into town,matter of fact 5 seats, I love going to the games, nothing like it, yes, we sucked in the beginning until the manning days, but as every fan must know is one day everyone gets older and slower,and that day for the colts were coming, Manning only has a few years left, Clark was getting slower, even Reggie is not what he was, we all know that, The colts had one of the greatest run in NFL history, My guess your team only can dream of having half the run the colts had, Did I want manning to leave, NO, Did I want manning to be a colts for life, YES, Did I want manning to bring luck up and show him the ropes, YES, But their days are numbered, and it’s time to move on, Irsay in my mind did the right thing, hoping this day would never come,but it always does, the ones we let go, it was time, luck was the choice, 3 4 d is a good thing, I think it’s all good in Indy. Come Sunday opening day, I WILL be in my seats, Watching MY team, at LUCAS OIL, play football, LIVE, while the rest of you possers, sit in front of your 56 inch TV, in the only room you have in your trailer hoping that the post dated check you sent to the cable company goes through, so you and drink your PBR and yell at your old lady, to move the dish that is planted in your lot so you can watch YOUR TEAM, GO TEAM GO!!!! Matter of fact post the name of your team, so all of us can have a good laugh, Unless your team is Pittsburg, New England or Baltimore, which i hate but RESPECT,(it’s a love hate thing) great fans on all of those teams, love when we play you guys, I don’t need you slamming nobody’s team, when yours can’t even make to the playoffs, So come Sunday who going to have the last laugh?

Ever stop to think Mr Irsay that they weren’t Colts fans, they were Manning fans you idiot. You’ll spend years in the pits like your Dady did before he ran to Indy. Oh, that kid’s Hospital, has Mannings name on it not the Colts and the house you live in will ALWAYS be KNOWN AS THE HOUSE THAT MANNING BUILT. Good thinking there chief.

Indianapolis is not a “real” NFL city. Going to a Colts game for those people is like going to the park. I was relocated from Cleveland to Indianapolis and attended my first Colts game live this past year and it was like bizarro world compared to Browns and Steelers games that I was used to. Cleveland Browns Stadium and Heinz field are mad houses on game day. Lucas Oil was like family fun night at the fair with the only cheering being controlled by the scoreboard (cheer loud when opponents are on offense, don’t talk when Colts are on offense and say “FIRST DOWN” really loud every 10 yards.).

When the Colts started loosing the entire section seemed offended by it and it was nothing but the other teams fans by the 3rd quarter (and this was the home opener so they weren’t officially a bad team yet).

You take away Payton Manning and a lot of their fans have no clue the team still exists. I kid you not, a couple behind me couldn’t believe they lost to the Bengals and were dead serious (they played the Browns in that game).

Until they make the playoffs again, Lucas Oil Stadium is going to be a ghost town for awhile. Fans in Indy were spoiled and definitely front runners. When one of the local radio stations had a poll question of “Will Payton Manning be back in time for the playoffs” last season at a point when the team was 0-3, I knew what kind of fan base the Colts had.

As a Colts fan we are/were spoiled. It was pretty much a good bet we were in the playoffs every year. Its like getting steak every dinner and then your told your getting peanut butter and jelly, your disapointed even though your promised lobster next week.

I love all the other fans coming here giving grief. It’s ok no matter what you say, we did great this draft. Let’s see what happens…

@cztikhldr4evr – I commented earlier. I am a Jags season ticket holder and have been for the past 3 years. I signed up for a three year commitment. Your team has a small stadium and has had ONE bad year and drafted Luck and has trouble selling tickets. Cry me a river. Your fans are spoiled compared to any NFL city. Not being able to sell tickets after one bad year is fair weather fans. Point blank. Spare me your anger.

Let’s wait to see how well Peyton can play for Denver before whining about Indy giving up on him. The Patriots are due to some barren years when Brady hangs ’em up. NFL teams go through cycles when they lose their franchise QB. There is nothing surprising about that.

Mrfrostyj, my hats off to you, for spending your hard earn money for THAT team, that’s great, but don’t call Indianapolis no NFL city, because you globbed on to some freebie tickets, only if you were relocated to Indy a few years earlier, you would have left the game with your ears ringing, Why do you think teams hated to play in Indy, crowd noise, errrr, that’s right PIPED in crowd noise, you are right, Steeler fans are great fans, I know all to well, but out of all the game the Browns played the steelers, how many game did the Browns win? Err NONE,
I would love to come to a browns game once they start winning, but my guess,when the team sucks so does the crowd,Yes, last year sucked bad for us,but it’s only for one year, not a life time like other teams

ssraebel, glad you got your tickets, hope you weren’t on the waiting list too long, bet you had a hard time picking your seats out, you had a pick of any seats EXCEPT the ones under the TARPS, give me a break, smallest stadium in NFL, check yours out, 67500 seats in Jacksonville, add another 17000 that’s under a tarp, just so your games will be on local tv. Lucas oil, 67000 with no tarps, Colts have never been blacked out, stadium been seats been sold out for I don’t know how long, my guess this year will be no different, season hasn’t started yet,
Got 3 yrs on your tickets, your choice or the NEW owner, LA JAGs was a nice ring to it, enjoy your seasons the next 3yrs, then you can cry me a river when you have to cheer for miami

Not a Colts fan, but bashing them for the low ticket sales this year is just shortsided. Ya gotta think long term instead of being the prisoner of the moment. Bad ticket sales was expected, but they still got one of the best QBs to come out of college in a long time. He may suck, but there is no doubt he has tons of ability in a pro set.

PS, the greedy owners would rather fold franchises or move teams than deign to lower prices for tickets, parking, or concessions.

im a huge colts fan and have been for years, and i cant lie, we do have alot of bandwagon fans here in Indy, it goes with the colts and the pacers, we both are winning they support, but when losing they have nothing to do with that team, calls them names and no support, but i always support both of them , no matter if its winning or losing, thats the notion of a true fan, most of the fans here were just PM18 fans only, and i can understand that, but Luck and our other draft picks will bring along their fan based too, dont worry, my colts will be alright!!1

@thrstr
You obviously have never had season tickets in the 100 section or lower. I would be glad to send you a print out of my invoices for the past 3-4 years. Please dont get on a site and try to accuse someone of not knowing what they are talking about when it is yourself who is clearly uninformed or misinformed.